Hand Cam
Hand Cam
"Viewers, thank you for waiting so patiently. I'm caster Lee Hyeok-jin, handling commentary for today's matches. Beside me we have our streamer Taker, and ACK announcer Kim Ye-ji."
"Right, without further ado, let me explain today's matches. This is the second Taker Cup Abyss Streamer Tournament, running as a four-team semifinal. The bracket will be decided shortly, and the games will start immediately after."
"Is there a reason you deliberately set the bracket right before the matches?"
"Obviously, for more entertaining games. If teams know in advance who they're facing and practice accordingly, they can analyze the opponent down to the last detail and bring specialized strategies tailored just for that team. Ban-pick is skill and part of the game, of course, but that's not the main focus of our tournament. And even setting that aside—doesn't dropping the bracket at the last second and diving straight into the games just feel more thrilling?"
"There are a few more differences from the first tournament as well. Taker, would you explain them to the viewers?"
"Sure. First, unlike last time, banning specific heroes during the ban-pick phase is completely gone. Instead of banning heroes, each team takes turns banning traits—three times total, three traits."
"Everything else follows standard tournament rules. After the trait bans, you pick, and you can't pick a hero the enemy team already selected."
"No mirror matches—that's one of the golden rules of golden rules, right?"
"And the semifinals will be best of three, while the finals will be best of five."
"Those are relatively familiar rules. Is there anything else we need to watch out for?"
"Ah, this is a rule that was added relatively recently…."
Caster Lee Hyeok-jin paused for a beat before continuing.
"To prevent illegal programs and account sharing, every participating player will stream a small cam feed. Even streamers who normally run no-cam will set up a hand cam or half-cam—at least enough to show their hands."
"Ah, to verify that they're the ones actually playing?"
"Exactly. In a similar vein, to stop people from watching the official broadcast for free map vision, the official stream will run on a ten-minute delay."
Even with regulations that could feel a little tight, people seemed largely convinced. Most of those watching the broadcast had lived through the previous tournament, and they knew full well that Ionix had thrown itself into preparing this one properly.
The scale of the event had changed. The prize money had jumped an entire digit. The number of people watching had changed. A tournament that looked this serious from the outside was always going to come with strict rules, and the viewers had no intention of nitpicking any of it.
As long as it was fun, that was enough. They just wanted the tournament to start as soon as possible. Some of them seemed even more excited by the fact that a certain streamer would be turning on a hand cam.
"Alright! That covers the overall rules and the points of caution. We shouldn't drag the small talk out any longer, right?"
"Exactly! The official broadcast has already broken forty thousand concurrent viewers. With this many people watching with interest, we can't keep stalling."
"Then straight into the next order of business: the bracket draw. I'm already looking forward to seeing which of these four powerhouse teams will face which…."
"Ah, the results are in! Streamer Kayack's Kayack Team will face Streamer Decal's Decal Team in the semifinals!"
"That automatically puts the remaining two teams—Yu-hye Team and Quattro Cheese Whopper Team—against each other in the other semifinal."
After finishing, Lee Hyeok-jin turned his head for a moment, exchanged a look with the staff, then spoke again.
"Ah, the players just finished their preparations. Then let's go straight into the first match of the day between Kayack Team and Decal Team."
"The second Taker Cup Abyss Streamer Tournament—which team will advance to the finals?"
"Indeed!"
With the casters' final cry, grand BGM rolled out and the screen switched.
"I'm so nervous. What do I do?"
"I wish we'd gotten the second slot. Of all things, the first match…."
"Uwaaaaah, I can do this. I can do this."
The moment the bracket dropped on the official broadcast they'd all gathered in Discord to watch, the team plunged straight into panic. They'd been told in advance that the first-seeded semifinal would start immediately, but knowing that didn't make the approaching blade any less sharp.
Now that the moment was actually here, the teammates couldn't hide their tension. I'd expected as much. Aside from Hangang, every one of them had said this was their first tournament of any kind.
Anything you experience for the first time makes you shake. First day of school, first love, first job. Of course they were nervous—and the scale of this one was nothing short of grand. No wonder the viewers had been making such a fuss.
Even Hangang, who'd been through a few tournaments before, couldn't completely hide a quiet tension under the sheer viewer count. That left me as the only person on the team who could still be called calm.
As the highest-tier player, as the team captain, and as a senior who'd lived through countless event matches, I had a duty to settle them down. I failed at it. For one thing, I wasn't exactly swimming in spare composure myself.
Whoosh—
I waved a hand to one side. Instantly, something white flicked past in the corner of the computer screen.
The cam feed. That white blur just now had been my hand. I currently had a small camera set up in front of the PC so that my hands would be visible.
When I'd first heard we had to run hand cams, I'd been thrown for a loop. I'd always figured the day would come when I'd turn a camera on, but I never imagined that day would be today.
"…."
For a moment I lifted my own hand and stared at it. The tiny, pure-white hand was flawless and elegant, without a single blemish.
A hand that felt nothing like my original one—a hand that screamed woman from every angle. Camilla must have suffered just as much as I had, if not more, so how could her hands look like this?
Was it really okay for someone who danced through battlefields swinging a sword to have hands this pretty? Shouldn't there be scars layered on scars, a couple of missing fingers—something normal like that?
…Well, it wasn't as if I disliked the way I looked now. A whole body was better than a ruined one, and something abnormally beautiful was better than merely normal.
Anyway, per tournament rules I had set the cam so that the hands playing the game would be visible, and I was still hesitating, just a little. Someone might say it was only hands, not a face—but for a stream with as long a history as mine, this was a small step that was also a big one. It was the kind of thing you couldn't do without making a real decision.
"Hoo…."
The wandering hand settled back into place. I let out a small breath and laid both hands neatly over the keyboard and mouse.
Even so, the chat window remained utterly silent. The tournament delay, no doubt. It wasn't that hard. Once I focused on the game I wouldn't even think about it. Now that I'd actually done it, the me who'd been fretting a moment ago felt a little ridiculous.
"Everyone."
Only after finishing every last bit of preparation did I open my mouth toward the teammates who were just as tense as I had been. As someone who'd been through plenty of these tournaments, I could say this much: you didn't need long speeches to cut the nerves.
"Let's win."
One line aimed at victory. That alone was enough.